Author: vasco

Agile outside software work is one of the topics that Andy discusses in the context of defining the success of the Scrum Master. As Scrum Masters we work with everybody in the organization, not just the team. Helping others is an effective way to help the teams as well!
Andy also shares his views on how we should NOT measure success of a Scrum Master.

About Andy Deighton

Andy has over 20 years of development experience in Smalltalk and Java, and is now a Scrum Master at Bright Interactive, based in Brighton on the south coast of the UK. He’s a former professional photographer and budding songwriter. You can find Andy Deighton on twitter. Connect with Andy Deighton in LinkedIn.

Andy discusses how hard it is to hire, and how we must constantly help Scrum Masters grow in their practice. Even if the Scrum Master is doing a good job (and also because of it), the teams will evolve. The style of the Scrum Master must then match that team evolution.

About Andy Deighton

Andy has over 20 years of development experience in Smalltalk and Java, and is now a Scrum Master at Bright Interactive, based in Brighton on the south coast of the UK. He’s a former professional photographer and budding songwriter. You can find Andy Deighton on twitter. Connect with Andy Deighton in LinkedIn.

Communication inside the team is a key indicator of whether they are performing or not. But the quality of communication in the team will also directly affect the communication with the stakeholders. Andy shares his insights into how to enable teams to improve the way they communicate, and work on the group dynamic.

About Andy Deighton

Andy has over 20 years of development experience in Smalltalk and Java, and is now a Scrum Master at Bright Interactive, based in Brighton on the south coast of the UK. He’s a former professional photographer and budding songwriter. You can find Andy Deighton on twitter. Connect with Andy Deighton in LinkedIn.

Andy starts by defining a great team: happy people building great software. A team that is focused on outcomes, rather than outputs. He explains how he learned to be a better Scrum Master through his experience, and what he changed in his own approach to the role of scrum master.

About Andy Deighton

Andy has over 20 years of development experience in Smalltalk and Java, and is now a Scrum Master at Bright Interactive, based in Brighton on the south coast of the UK. He’s a former professional photographer and budding songwriter. You can find Andy Deighton on twitter. Connect with Andy Deighton in LinkedIn.

How do we help organizations to recognize the value that scrum teams can bring, and the obstacles they face in the process? Stephen Thomas shares his recipe and describes a few ideas of how the retrospectives can be an effective practice to help organizations evolve and get better.
Stephen’s recipe for organization improvement:

Help the teams understand their progress with a physical (as opposed to digital) and visual burndown (colorful if possible).

Write the principles on the wall and make sure people see them regularly. Point to them when needed.

Have lots of wall space for teams to use and create their shared view of their work.

Help start and facilitate organization-level retrospectives, because improving one team is not enough for lasting change.

Make the team independent

Before implementing all of this, make sure that the organization has the necessary knowledge to work in an agile manner, helping organize training if needed, and working with stakeholders regularly.

About Stephen Thomas

Stephen has been managing digital projects since 2004. Initially specialising in e-learning, he now looks after multiple projects that range from rapidly produced native apps to large-scale social networks. Based in Oxford, he is also one of the founders of the DOPM meetup.
You can connect with Stephen Thomas in LinkedIn, and follow Stephen Thomas on Twitter.

Defining success for scrum masters is not easy, but it is necessary for us to achieve it. Does it have to do with reaching the sprint goal? Or a regular daily goal? Can a scrum master be successful when the team does not release software regularly? And how about the customer’s view? How can the customer help us define and assess success as Scrum Masters?
Stephen shares how he struggled to define success for him as Scrum Master, and why that was hard.

About Stephen Thomas

Stephen has been managing digital projects since 2004. Initially specialising in e-learning, he now looks after multiple projects that range from rapidly produced native apps to large-scale social networks. Based in Oxford, he is also one of the founders of the DOPM meetup.
You can connect with Stephen Thomas in LinkedIn, and follow Stephen Thomas on Twitter.

What should we do to help choose the best people for our teams and organizations? Especially if we already believe the recruiting interview is not the best possible, or even most effective method to bring out the best in people. Stephen has a few ideas on how to prepare for the recruiting process, and how to setup a way to watch the candidates in action before finalizing the recruitment process.

About Stephen Thomas

Stephen has been managing digital projects since 2004. Initially specialising in e-learning, he now looks after multiple projects that range from rapidly produced native apps to large-scale social networks. Based in Oxford, he is also one of the founders of the DOPM meetup.
You can connect with Stephen Thomas in LinkedIn, and follow Stephen Thomas on Twitter.

What can you do, as a Scrum Master when the team is stuck in a pattern of negativity and self-destruction? Stephen explains the situation of a team that was in that situation, and what were the symptoms that characterized the problems the teams were facing. He discusses how communication suffers, how the us versus them dynamic emerged and how hard it was to help the team in that situation. We also discuss the techniques you can use to help the team get out of that pattern of self-destruction.

About Stephen Thomas

Stephen has been managing digital projects since 2004. Initially specialising in e-learning, he now looks after multiple projects that range from rapidly produced native apps to large-scale social networks. Based in Oxford, he is also one of the founders of the DOPM meetup.
You can connect with Stephen Thomas in LinkedIn, and follow Stephen Thomas on Twitter.

How can we help teams learn as Scrum Masters? What fails when they don’t? And what is the role of ceremonies like the retrospectives in Scrum? These and other questions are tackled in this episode. Stephen also discusses how the search for control can actually have a negative impact on the success of the team.

About Stephen Thomas

Stephen has been managing digital projects since 2004. Initially specialising in e-learning, he now looks after multiple projects that range from rapidly produced native apps to large-scale social networks. Based in Oxford, he is also one of the founders of the DOPM meetup.
You can connect with Stephen Thomas in LinkedIn, and follow Stephen Thomas on Twitter.

Organizations need to be supported every day in their agile journey. Mario Lucero shares his insights about that process. He mentions that inequality of teams and managers can threaten your agile adoption process and suggests a way to help organizations effectively adopt Agile.